Yes, that’s right. Day, not days. I’ve been busting my behind to finish this grant proposal, because NIH waits for no one. If it isn’t shipped out on April 1, then we might as well sit on it until August 1. Not good. But as of this afternoon, it is, in the main, done. Oh, I’m sure there will be corrections to make, and one bio sketch remains, but those are little things. I am certain, now, that it will be ready to go to FedEx on time. My son has spent the last two days with his grandparents to their delight and his. I must say, the thought of moving away from the ever-ready grandparents fills my heart with something greatly resembling terror.
So then what, you might ask, could be bad? I’ll tell you. My car.
The day of the great tire debacle, it had gone in for three things: a thumping tire, an oil change, and a transmission fluid leak. The only candidate the mechanic could find for that last was a loose clamp, which he replaced, and indeed no more signs of trouble appeared for a bit. That changed today. It seems I left calling cards in the form of pink puddles on the ground hither and yon, including at the lab where I do my grant writing, my own driveway, and, when I first realized what kind of trouble I was in, on my mechanics parking lot. The transmission stuck itself in 2nd gear. I’m told that condition actually has a name. It’s called “limp mode” and it is entirely apt, because that’s what the creature does. It limps, slowly and painfully, but it does move. It began to do this in the parking lot outside the lab, but I kept going…not, as intended, to pick up my son, but instead the half-mile to the mechanic.
The upshot is that it will be getting a new transmission pump, and that I am driving a rental car for a few days. The mechanic didn’t have a loaner that he trusted. It’s a hassle, but y’know? There’s good there too. We can do it. We don’t have to agonize over the financial aspect. It’s just a car, and once again, no one got stranded, no one got hurt, and Joseph was safe and sound with my folks. So on balance? I’d have to say it was a good day.